Siri Is Sexist

The voice of Siri, Apple’s new voice-activated command software for the iPhone, is female: a warm, helpful-sounding and of course, nurturing female voice. Initially, it may seem like a happy coincidence that programmers chose a female voice for Siri, but once you actually begin to use the software, a discomforting possibility arises. After all, Siri is basically an electronic version of a secretary, who schedules appointments and looks things up for you. In fact, Siri behaves much like a retrograde male fantasy of the ever-compliant secretary: discreet, understanding, willing to roll with any demand a man might come up with, teasingly accepting of dirty jokes. Oh yeah, and mainly indifferent to the needs of women.